The Bakery Love

16 | Caramel

Since we both had our cars, we decided to meet at my house. I arrived early and decided to wait inside for him. I changed into more comfortable clothes and started to tidy up the house, my perfectionist side showing herself as I fretted over every little detail. It was also a distraction from my nerves in knowing that Noah would be inside my little safe place.

He showed up after a few minutes, I welcomed him in with a shy "Hi."

He smiled at me as he walked into my apartment. I stood idly as he looked around the apartment. He pointed towards the kitchen and we both walked towards the kitchen with him leading us.

"Nice place." He commented as he leaned against the island. And for the first time, I noticed that he was carrying a bag as he placed it on the island. He noticed my stare at the bag so he explained, "I thought it would be a better idea to have all the possible ingredients ready so I bought them before coming."

I looked at him with surprise, that was thoughtful and very organized; definitely different from my less organized self. "Thank you, that would very helpful." I thanked him before I dragged out a chair to sit and silently asked him to do the same as I pulled out another chair for him too. He shook his head and continued to lean against the island.

"So, what do you have in mind?" he asked me and I turned red as I realized that I was looking at his arms which were mostly bare as he wore a short-sleeved t-shirt. His arms were big but lean and were quite beautiful with visible flexed veins on his arms and surprisingly few tattoos scattered on his arms that for the first time I noticed them. I would be lying if I said that I didn't like what I saw. But since I was so busy noticing little details about his arms that his question surprised me and I thought that he caught me but when my eyes traveled north I saw that he was scrolling on his phone.

"Um, what about a reimagined dessert?" I asked him. To stand out from the crowd I thought it would be a good idea to make a dessert in a reimagined way, a different outlook on a known dessert.

He nodded with an impressed look. "Like a deconstructed dessert. Having same flavors but constructed differently." He confirmed to which I nodded back and then he continued, "That's a very good idea. We could take some very classic desserts like black forest cake." He complimented me with a smile.

I smiled back and then we had a good debate about what dessert to do. Finally, we both agreed that a deconstructed dessert was such a good idea that we would save it for future rounds if we got selected. And for now, we decided on a strawberry tres leches cake with blackberry caviar. It would show technique and add uniqueness to our dish.

"Do we have all the ingredients that we need right now?" Noah asked me after our decision. We decided to try the dish now to make sure that the flavors work together as well as decide on the presentation of the dish.

"Yes, we can start" I answered him. I started to remove all the ingredients that we need to make a strawberry cake.

"Do you mind?" he asked as he pointed to the speaker. I nodded to him to use it. He connected his phone to the speaker and a song blasted through it. I made a face as soon as I recognized the overrated song by Bryson Miller. He looked at my face and asked me, "Do you not like his music?" His expression was serious as if he couldn't understand why I would make that face.

I frowned at him. "Not really but if you want you can play it," I said, he was the guest and since he asked to play the songs, he gets the veto to choose the song.

Now he frowned at me. "Why don't you like his music?" he asked me.

"I feel his songs are quite cliché and not very original in a way that it lacks the rawness, the feeling, and I prefer the songs where you could feel and can connect with the artist. When it comes to Bryson's songs, they feel superficial as if the only reason they exist is to please the people and I find it hard to connect to an artist who isn't being true to their selves." I explained my reasons.

He looked offended as if I somehow offended him by not liking Bryson's music. He played another song and started to make the cake batter. I frowned at his behavior and the next few minutes passed with tense and awkward silence the only sound that resonated was the song and noise of making the batter. After I placed the cake tin in the oven, I turned to confront Noah about his sudden behavior change.

But before I could, he beat me to it. "I guess I could see what you mean about Bryson's songs." He said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"I don't mean to offend you in any way. I don't like it doesn't mean that you shouldn't play his songs." I said to him. "And the difference in choice of music isn't a deal-breaker for me." I joked to lighten up the atmosphere.

He chuckled and replied, "Good, because it isn't mine too"

I smiled at him. I had flour in my hands as I bumped into Noah and a bit of flour sprinkled on his face. I chuckled at his shocked face. He shot me a smirk and dipped his fingers in the flour before flicking it towards me. I gasped as flour-covered my cheeks and then it was his turn to chuckle at my face.

"Oh, now you have started it!" I narrowed my eyes at him and took a handful of flour and threw it at his face. His smirk vanished and a determined look appeared on his face as he took an egg and cracked it before dumping it on my head. I yelled as the gooey egg ran down my face, he laughed loudly at that. I froze as I looked at him, he was laughing with his head thrown back and his eyes were squinted close; the way his laugh seemed so genuine and carefree that I wanted to take a picture of him being so happy. I snapped back after a few seconds and in return, I threw some cocoa powder on him.

And within the next few minutes, we both were covered in all the different ingredients that we could get our hands on, we both froze at the sound of the front door getting unlocked. Madison walked into the kitchen and looked around. So I did the same and the view of the kitchen and Noah and I would be the definition of the word messy, I would even argue that messy would be inadequate to describe it. The kitchen counters and floor were scattered with flour, eggs, cocoa powder, and milk while somehow the ceiling was also a victim of our food war.

Madison looked at me after observing everything before shaking her head and going into her room. Noah looked at me sheepishly while I shrugged my shoulders at him. We both cleaned the kitchen in silence with constant looks exchanged between us.

"I want to say I'm sorry but I am not. This was the most fun I had in a long time so rather I'll say thank you for having me." Noah confessed while I smiled at him.

"I also had a lot of fun. And don't worry the rest we can complete tomorrow, I'll bring the cake and we can decorate it in the café." I offered. None of us were in the position to do it anyway considering that we both needed to freshen up and remove all the remains of flour.

"Sure, bye," Noah said to me with a smile as he went out of the apartment. I smiled back and bid my goodbyes.